Ace, if crowded, gig...
Lordy, have you ever seen such queueing? Before the doors were open to the upstairs bit of the Monarch / Barfly last night, there was a queue right round the bar. And then when the doors opened, the queue started moving, but didn't get shorter... were these people going upstairs, down the other staircase and rejoining the queue or something?
So, missed the opening act, DNA Doll, feel free to make up your own review.
The John Cooper Temple Pilot Clause Clark Five opened with "Amber", (though that's not going to mean anything, as recorded output from the band is harder to track down than a U2 ticket) and continued in their Led Zeppelin meets Primal Scream swirladelic style - they were every bit as good as their last outing, despite the pressure of media-heavy audience.
Again, the stage seemed even more crowded than the, uh, "crowd", six piece bands are a bit unusual, though none of them seem to be spare at this stage. The guy playing with the computer / sequencer / whatever was going APESHIT, which added to the entertainment value.
By the second song ("Who Needs Enemies") the crowd was starting to heave, some people even appeared to be SINGING ALONG. I thought I was "in on the ground floor" of this one, but clearly not, how are people so familiar with them already? The crush of the audience proved too much, your correspondent made his excuses and retired to the back of the room. There was just as much to see there, it was the annual "I thought you were dead" convention, including members of Longpigs, Space, and My Life Story, see Stalking Heads for more details...
Again because of the utter utter rammed-ness of the venue, we missed the headliners, Sizer Barker. You don't have to though, last night was just the start of an HUGE tour, that comes back to that London again over the next month. Miss it and weep.
This content originally from my popular (in the tail end of the nineties) site popex.com. Parts were contributed by valued punters, so mainly originally created by me. I shifted this content here when the website finally closed down at the start of the noughties. Hopefully this brings back memories assuming you find it.